The Catalyst

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An op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer by William Burga, a former president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, is a good reminder that support for patent reform - which I've written about in the past - is important not just to biopharmaceutical research companies, but to all sectors that are stimulated by the patent system.

Yesterday, PhRMA President and CEO John J. Castellani spoke at the Personalized Medicine Coalition's 7th annual State of Personalized Medicine Luncheon. He spoke about the many challenges confronting the biopharmaceutical sector as it increasingly turns its attention to personalized medicine, but also about the promise that the field offers.

The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care was founded in 1987 with a mission of promoting the individual and collective professional development of nurses involved in the delivery of healthcare to patients with HIV/AIDS. ANAC is a member-driven, chapter-based organization of over 2,500 nurses united to advocate for their HIV patients and advance HIV/AIDS research and standards of HIV care. In its goals is the abiding commitment to the prevention of further HIV infection.

Unsurprisingly, coverage of the AIDS 30th anniversary has been heating up. On Friday on NPR's All Things Considered, University of Alabama-Birmingham's Dr. Michael Saag spoke about spending his entire career treating AIDS, as he began his residency in 1981.

Grady, my partner in blogging, is enviably vacationing in the south of France, so you'll be hearing even more from me in the next 10 days or so. I don't know who is luckiest: Grady, me or you...

Anyway, two topics will be front and center throughout the week: the progress we've made since HIV/AIDS was first formally recognized 30 years ago and the tremendous promise of personalized medicine. As you'll see, there are many common threads in these separate but very much entwined story lines.

It serves as a reminder that American patients currently enjoy peace of mind knowing that their prescription medicines are safe and effective, as determined by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and not counterfeit.

This week marks the beginning of the 2011 hurricane season. Experts are predicting one of the strongest seasons on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in its 2011 hurricane season forecast, predicts 12-18 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season, with three to six becoming serious enough to be classified as major hurricanes.